The Black Pits II: Gladiators of Thay
The Black Pits II, officially called the Black Pits II: Gladiators of Thay, is a follow-up to Baeloth's Black Pits I. The Black Pits II shows up in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition. It is run by a powerful mage named Dennaton, enforced by a planetar called The Winged, and staffed by many volunteers and servants of Dennaton. There are several differences between the two installments. The area in Black Pits II is much larger than in Black Pits I, the arena entrance is a non-weave zone which prevents magic energy from channeling so you can't pre-buff your party like in BP1 but there's a place for you to prepare sequence spells and you may ask others to help you in battles. Much more powerful monsters are in fight and you start at levels 9-11, depending on your class. New Reward system is introduced. Reward system In addition to exp and gold gain, Dennaton will give you an option to address the crowd and request an item before you enter the arena, there're two ways to address, hero or villain, you should stick to one path as they are counterproductive, increasing one will decrease another. Each time you become more heroic or villain, the chance you receive a reward after fights increases. You can only address 3 times in the same battle, any further attempts will not increase the total reward chance. There're also 2 types of rewards in each battle, good and great, but you may only get one type per fight so you have to fight the same battle more to get another. The chance of getting a good item starts at 45%, the chance of getting a great item starts at 20%, only one copy of each kind of reward can be gained. List below shows the experience and gold gain after each battle, however unlike BP1, repeating previously completed battles will not net you XP, only additional gold, battleground is listed because traps carry over to the next fights. Store item lists As you fight to advance in tiers, more items become available for you to purchase, the items unlocked will stay in store lists, all wands except the Wand of Spell Striking can be bought immediately, most Potions are also in stores from the beginning. The lists below show which items are added each tier, genetic non-magical, +1, +2 or +3 items are not listed. Weapons Armor Robes & Accessories Potions Most Potions are available from Tier 1 Loot and containers There're several creatures you can kill, the Winged will spawn once to warn you. Following time, she'll slay your party. There're containers in the game, some are locked or need a key, some require you be at a certain story point. Walkthrough Dennaton considers you his guests, though you were taken by force. When you start out, you are in a tavern and a bard is telling the story of your escape from the Black Pits I. She will engage in dialogue, and, no matter what you say to her line, she and the other patrons in the tavern will turn into hostile people, complete with The Winged, an Iron or Adamantite Golem, and an Efreeti. Before this happens, Najim will arrive and warn you that you are in danger. He will be trapped by a magical sphere. Once your whole party is defeated, you will be transported to the Pits. In the unlikely and nearly impossible event (Unless you play with an already trained and well-equipped party) that you win this fight, a dialogue will initiate with Najim, and several options are possible. He will speak about a divination spell to give you a preview of what would have happened had you lost the fight. Agreeing to this will allow you to play the Black Pits II just as if you lost or let them take you by force, while refusing will simply get you back to title screen. Gameplay Links *The Black Pits II Items And Rewards Guide by Abel Gameplay (community) Gejadus's Walkthrough (Strategy) You’ve been captured by evil powerful hunters led by The Winged! You find yourself in a huge prison with other prisoners and you have to be a gladiator in an arena. You are determined to survive and want to escape your prison. You want to be a free man/ a free woman again! '''Party members: Your goal is your freedom! In order to escape the prison you have to defeat an extremely powerful opponent finally: The Winged! Even worse she’s supported by other powerful creatures! From this perspective you have to choose and create your party members carefully. There are many options. You can have up to 6 party members or just choose one! High level mages or witches are very powerful so you want to have at least two in your party. You don’t really need a thief in your party unless you want to have access to all rooms of the hunters and steal from The Winged her powerful gloves. You can see my party at the end of the article: How to defeat The Winged. Money: This should never be an issue for you! You should be able to buy all the items that you like to get. If you buy the Helm of Glory (Charisma +1) and the Cloak of the Nymph (Charisma +2) early and give it e.g. to the knight Alarion his charisma will increase to +21. You will get reduced prices and on the long run you can save lots of money. In addition to you can play all the battles as often as you want! If you should ever run out of money just fight against The Three Dragons (battle 18) again! Each time you fight again you will get 10000 gold as a reward if you’re victorious. Rewards/gifts from the spectators, your fans: Fighting against the same enemies again makes lots of sense if you want to get all the rewards! There are two types of rewards in each battle (see: '''REWARD SYSTEM on top of this page: The Black Pits II: Gladiators of Thay). You have to ask your fans for giving them to you (at the end of the dialogue with Dennaton always number 3.). Playing The Black Pits II is great fun! It’s time for entering the arena! Dennaton is already nervous. What took you so long? The spectators can’t wait any longer to see the hero of Baeloth’s Black Pits I! You will face 19 battles before the uproar/revolt starts. After each 5 battles there will be a supply of new items that you can buy by using the money that you earned in the arena. Even after the last series of only 4 battles there will be new items available! Don’t forget to buy Vecnas Robe and Gram The Sword of Grief at the end after battle 19 (Tier 5)! Gladiators who can fight alongside you in the arena: You’re not alone in this huge prison. There are other prisoners as well. They share your destiny. You can ask them to support you in your battles. Here are some strong fighters: Symm Haximus: He’s willing to help you from the first battle on Timmot Gutbaum: He won’t help you in the beginning, but later Hort Il-D’rth: He won’t help you in the beginning, but later. He’s extremely useful in battle 17 against the two powerful Demilich twins because as a berserker he's resistant to imprisonment! Voghiln: He’s a bard whom you can encounter in Siege of Dragonspear (SoD) as well! He might be strong but in the arena he's so drunken that he's not really of use. That's at least my experience. Battles There are 4 difficulty levels: easy; medium; difficult; extremely difficult. This is according to my game playing experience against these opponents in the arena when I played with the general setting ‘core rules’. So all these difficulty levels are totally subjective. At your starting position you have 15000 gold at your disposal. I suggest that buy the Helm of Glory (Charisma +1) first, then armors for your warriors and some good double handed swords+1 or Flame of the North. If money is left it’s always good to equip all your party members with one healing potion and poison antidote. If you have a bard in your company the Harp of Discord for confusing your enemies is a ‘must’! Tier 1 - Battle 1 (1-1): Orcs difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: Just let your mages use the Web (spider net) spell, Magic Missiles, Flame Arrows, Melf’s Acid Arrows and let finally your warriors fight. Hints: I just cheer up the spectators! I want them to be excited about the battle. I don’t ask for any item yet. With your gold gain of 11000 Gold for defeating the Orcs buy Wyvern’s Tail for your cleric. Tier 1 - Battle 2 (1-2): Two Minotaurs and some gladiators difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: Web – Stinking Cloud Spell – Fireball – Magic Missiles; later Spider Spawn Hints: I just cheer up the spectators! I want them to be excited about the battle. I don’t ask for any item yet. Buy Spider’s Bane for one of your warriors! Tier 1 - Battle 3 (1-3): Lizard Men difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: Web – Stinking Cloud Spell – Fireball – Magic Missiles; summon up Skeletons Hints: I just cheer up the spectators again! Tier 1 - Battle 4 (1-4): Umber Hulk Elders difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: Web and Stinking Cloud Spell is crucial! Usually Spell Disintegrate destroys these beasts at once! Let your cleric put a spell on your warriors that they don’t get stuck in the spider web but can move and fight: Free Action! Hints: I want to get the reward items: Lilarcor and Aeger’s Hide. Go for nr.3 in the dialogue with Dennaton! Tier 1 - Battle 5 (1-5): Drows difficulty level: difficult! Strategy/solution: In my eyes the best solution is 1.) to ask another prison gladiator like Symm Haximus to join you in this battle. He does it gladly for free. 2.) to let your cleric protect your party members from evil (Protection from Evil) and summon a demon (Gate -''' cleric/priest level 7). In addition to use web, speed and True Seeing Hints/Warning: Be careful! If your cleric summons up an air element (Aerial servant) the Drows might convert it and suddenly you’ll face the element as an opponent. Have poison antidotes with you! When a Drow dies three poisonous spiders show up. I want to get the reward items: Cloak of Balduran and '''Bladesinger chain+4 (great item for the fighter-mage-thief). Go for nr.3 in the dialogue with Dennaton! Summary/achievements after 5 battles: After winning 5 battles the party members could gain experience 5 times. These upgrades move Alarion to level 18, what means that he can already summon a Diva '''(chosen special ability)! My two witches are on level 18 as well. Spells: '''Project Image; Time Stop and Planetar. GREAT! This is how it works: Let your witch use Time Stop first and then Project Image. This allows to summon up Planetars and not only one even if Alarion has already summoned up his Deva a type of creature of this kind! So for the next battle against the Vampires you should rest for 8 hours and your new spells for the 18th level will e activated. In the following battle you could summon up 2 Planetars after using Time Stop; without using Time Stop even 3! If you have 2 witches 6 Planetars. If you let Alarion summon his Deva first you could have an army of 7 angelic beings against the Vampires. Already now after 5 battles and having reached level 18 you have really powerful abilities! ''' This principal is crucial for all following battles. Even if I don’t mention it in my solution expressively in each battle you can let your witches use Time Stop – Project Image – Planetar! When a witch finally has reached her maximum level of 27 after battle 19 she’s able to summon 6 Planetars. If you have 2 witches already 12 and if you let Alarion summon his Deva first, you will have an army of 13 angels! Impressive! After 5 battles the next tier starts: new items are available to buy! Go for the Boots of Speed , the Shield of Harmony, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise and Jhor the Bleeder, a mean bastard sword! conclusion: With these upgrades, new abilities and new items you can be very confident concerning the next 5 battles! Just the Vampires (battle 6 (2-1)) and Mardii (battle 9 (2-4)) will be a little bit challenging. Tier 2 - Battle 1 (2-1)/Battle 6: Vampires difficulty level: medium Strategy/solution: web – confusion spell – Aerial Servant (the air element is very strong against the Vampires) - Diva Hints: gifts from your fans: '''Amulet of power! Tier 2 - Battle 2 (2-2)/Battle 7: Githyanki difficulty level: easy (my favourite enemies) Strategy/solution: web!- Abi Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting – Wyvern call (Wyverns fly over the web) – Diva. Spell Free Action on your warriors! Hints: Silver Sword!! Extremely good for killing! Get it from your fans! Tier 2 - Battle 3 (2-3)/Battle 8: Water Elements difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: Abi Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting!! Hints: Firetooth +4 Tier 2 - Battle 4 (2-4)/Battle 9: Mardii and his Elements difficulty level: a little bit difficult! Strategy/solution: Time Stop and remove Mardii’s magic protection! Spell Speed on you warriors and hunt Mardiii down and kill him! You can also try to fire a Comet on him at once. Don’t destroy the elements in the beginning! After being killed they will come back! But two of them instead of one! Kill Mardii first! I like to do it with the Silver Sword! Hints: Flail of Ages Tier 2 - Battle 5 (2-5)/Battle10: Demons and Devils difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: Just let the demons kill each other! Stay out of battle. If the succubus attacks your warriors too much with charm spells – kill him! I usually spell web next to him at the beginning of the battle and kill with the warrior who has Spider’s Bane or Free Action on him'.' Hints: Longsword Blackrazor! Recommendations after battle 10: It would be good to make sure that you have all the reward items from the battle 1-10 that you like before you go on! '''You can play all battles again and try to get these gifts from your fans! I make sure that I really have Bladesinger chain, the Amulet of Power, the Silver Sword, the Flail of Ages and Blackrazor before I start with battle 11 (Tier 3-1). At this time I also start going around and talking with lots people in the prison. I trust that you will talk with Tartle and follow his hints for going upstairs. When you finally talk with Dulf Finsterbart he will tell you that he knows the '''Drow Mage Bannor well. He will be willing to produce a script role for you in order to take over Bannor role in the strong Adamantite Golem. Instead of Dulf letting this produce for you you address to the wild mage Gerrold Dunkelbold '''who does it for less money. Gerolf needs a property from Bannor. For this reason you will go upstairs of the rooms of the hunters for getting a piece from Bannor mirror that lies on the floor and bring it to Gerrold. For 4000 gold Gerrold will give you this special script roll just before the final battle with The Winged. His script roll works fine! You can also try to poison Joker.' Although I had Joker’s wine from her room and four different gifts (rat poison, poison from the Brewer (Belfer’s mushroom friend), Gezzthemin and even Ellraish) none of them could kill Joker when she came down and joined Voghiln for drinking! It just didn’t work. So I don’t know if there’s even another 5th poison that would work... After 5 battles the next tier starts: new items are available to buy from the merchants! Buy Boots of Speed again, Girdle of Stone Giant Strength, Red Dragon Scale and '''Ring of the Ram'! Tier 3 - Battle 1 (3-1)/Battle 11: Monks difficulty level: medium-difficult Strategy/solution: These monks come very fast towards you and kick you really hard! 1.) ask another gladiator in prison like Symm Haximus to join you in this battle. 2.) web - Summon creatures – witches: time stop/mirror image/Planetars as fast as possible! – True Seeing – attack a monk always with several warriors. I like my warrior-cleric using Globe of Blades Hints: Wong Fei’s Ioun Stone Tier 3 - Battle 2 (3-2)/Battle 12: Golem difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: witches: time stop/mirror image/Planetars Hints: CROM FAEYR!! Go for it and give it to your cleric! Shuruppak’s Plate! Tier 3 - Battle 3 (3-3)/Battle 13: Lich difficulty level: medium - difficult Strategy/solution: My cleric will use Globe of Blades. Time Stop and remove the Lich’s magic protection! Hints: Staff of the Magi!!! A ‘must’! Tier 3 - Battle 4 (3-4)/Battle 14: Rakshas difficulty level: medium-difficult Strategy/solution: I let of one my witches attack the Rakshas at once with a Comet '''while they are still getting ready for battle. Some get unconscious are east to kill then. Witches: time stop/mirror image/Planetars. My cleric will use Globe of Blades. Hints: Nice rewards again! Tier 3 - Battle 4 (3-5)/Battle 15: Illithids difficulty level: easy Strategy/solution: web next to the slaves! – Be fast and kill the Illthids as fast as possible! Hints: Psion’s Blade New items are available to buy from the merchants! Buy Boots of Speed again, Vhailor’s Helm, Staff of the Woodlands Girdle of Frost Giant Strength and other nice items! Tier 4 - Battle 1 (4-1)/Battle 18: The 6 fallen Devas difficulty level: difficultStrategy/solution: '''Ask Symm Haximus to join you in this battle! He’s an excellent fighter! These fallen Devas go for your mages and witches first and want to kill them! True Seeing/True Sight Hint: Carsomyr!''' and '''The Answerer! Tier 4 - Battle 2 (4-2)/Battle 17: The Demilich twins difficulty level: difficult!/easy! '''Strategy/solution: Ask Hort Il D’rth to help you! As a berserker he’s immune to this mean imprisonment spell that these two Demi Liches usually use! '''Let your own berserker warriors use their special rage ability! Best weapon to attack these evil twins: Daystar! '''It’s a long sword. A mage can use '''the Ring of The Ram '''to cause additional harm! Summon up lots of creatures that the Demi Liches get distracted and don’t attack your warriors. '''Best strategy: '''Let the fighter-mage –thief use '''Time Stop (this role is 6x: cost: 11200 Gold (Charisma: +21)), and then during the Time Stop let him use a Greater Whirlwind Attack on these guys by using DAYSTAR '''and another weapon +4 or +5! => So the battle becomes easy! Hints/Warning: These two Demiliches are totally immune to magic and can only be damaged by using weapons +4 or +5. Of course you want to get the '''Ring of Kangaax as a reward!! You fight as often until you get it as a gift from your fans! Tier 4 - Battle 3 (4-3)/Battle 18: The Three Dragons difficulty level: easy!Strategy/solution: It don’t see any problems when you have strong warriors. If they struggle let your mages or witches use spells to remove the magic protection from YLLAXIA Hints: Gives you each time 10000 gold for defeating them again! Foebane + Angurdaval! Tier 4 - Battle 4 (4-4)/Battle19: The Bhaalspawn/Enegar and Kastulor, two children of the dead God Bhaal level: extremely difficult! /easy ''' '''Strategy/solution: '''Best is to kill Enegar at once before he can change into his evil Bhaalspwan appearance: The Slayer (Slayer form)! Enegar can change into the big slayer form; Kastulor into a small slayer! Not nice! You might be fast with your warriors and manage to kill him e.g. with the Silver Sword! This would save you lots of trouble and then the fight would have been easy! Hints/Warning: '''Time Stop doesn’t work! The Bhaalspawn is immune to Time Stop! These two most evil creatures will just attack your warriors like crazy while one of your mages uses Time Stop! Forget about Time Stop! After the last battle an interesting conversation takes place between Tartle and Brodle. It becomes clear that the hunters haven’t come back from their hunt for a long time. They are after something really big – a Taraske. This is your and the other prisoners’ chance to try to escape! Before you meet with the others make sure that you but all necessary items from the merchants! '''After the revolt has started you won’t be able to buy from them any more. I trust that you find the place for starting the revolt and are able to defeat all the guards. You finally end up at this merchant place again and discover that there was an explosion. Now you have access to a treasure room. Take '''The Cloak of the Lich! (I remember playing and winning against The Winged in another way than described below when I only had a witch and warrior left. The Cloak of a the Lich was a wonderful protection for my berserker warrior. The Winged just couldn’t tear the soul out of the warrior’s body and kill him) Talk with the other gladiators in prison who are left and you will be surprised! You go on in order to find Dennaton and kill him and escape from prison! In the arena you will see Voghlin, Gerrold and another mage fighting against Umber Hulks. You will support your fellow prisoners of course. After defeating them Gerrold with you the special script roll to change roles with Bannor! You go on! You want to find Dennaton and kill him and be free at last! Gejadus's How to defeat The Winged? >>'>>> You are facing here the biggest challenge in the whole Baldur’s Gate I+II, EE realm !!! <<< Defeating Kangaxx the Demilich might not seem to be an easy task but this challenge here is another league! '''The Winged is extremely tough and can recover quickly after being injured and at first it's seems nearly impossible to defeat her and her evil companions. Here are two solutions to defeat here: First solution: The easy way to defeat her! '''Create a fighter-mage (-thief)!' In the final battle let the fighter-mage use Time Stop in order to approach The Winged, then use the Greater Whirlwind Attack immediately and hit her e.g. with Angurvadal and the Answerer at the same time. After the time stop's over she's already badly wounded. Attack her now with all your fighters. Especially a berserker warrior with Gram the Sword of Grief (double handed sword that is available to buy after destroying the Bhaalspawn – Tier 5), Ring of Gaxx and Cloak of the Lich (Vault) is extremely effective! If you still don't manage to kill her use your mages in addition and lower the resistance of The Winged several times (spell: Lower Resistance). Second solution: Defeating The Winged without using the fighter-mage (-thief) abilities (see above) Usually you kill Dormatus, one of the evil party members, before the final combat with The Winged. You go upstairs to his room, release Najim out of his prison and Dormatus will show up... So at the end you will face only five enemies. After the dialogue with Dennaton the five remaining hunters show up. The strategy is as follows: 1.) You want to get rid of the strong Adamantite Golem Bannor. 2.) You want to kill one weak party member: Joker. 3.) You attack with all your forces The Winged. 4.) You kill the mage Thassk Kun. 5.) You finally kill the strong mage Pol Pyrrus (spells: resistant against magic weapons + Black Blade of Disaster, I guess) So after the battle has started you want to 1.) use Gerrold’s script roll (only 4000 Gold) to exchange the role with Bannor. You need a mage for this. In my case (see party below) I used my fighter-mage-thief. You use this script roll straight away on Bannor. Bannor will attack you immediately so make sure that your party helps that the script roll works! For assistance let a party member e.g. Alarion conjure/summon up a Diva next to Bannor and a thief uses the staff of the woodlands to summon up a beast (Shambling Mound) In addition to a cleric summons up two fire, wind or earth elements. 2.) Have two witches in your party! Each of the two witches will fire a Comet '''next to Joker so that he gets already pretty badly harmed. Najim who took Dormatus' role in disguise will do the rest finally. 3.) The Winged and Pol get attracted by the mage who uses Gerrold’s script roll on Bannor. They try to attack him and come close. So in possession of the Adamantite Golem use it at once in order to attack The Winged. All your party members will attack The Winged. A berserker warrior who uses '''Gram the Sword of Grief will duplicate himself by using Vhailor’s Helm! The two witches play a special role: They will use Time Stop and use the spell for accelerating their spells (Improved Alacrity) and afterwards use the spell lower resistance '''several times on The Winged. It’s good to keep the two witches at separate places. One of the witches should be equipped with two items that help to cast spells faster: Robe of Vecna (Tier 5) and Amulet of Power (Great item after defeating the Vampires). Be fast in attacking and killig The Winged. She can recover quickly! 4.) + 5.) After extinguishing The Winged it shouldn’t be too difficult to overcome the last two enemies, the two mages. Let the two witches use '''Time Stop again and create a Project image. This allows to summon up lots of Planetars and not only one! The author of these two solutions used the following party: Alarion (given knight); a berserker warrior; a warrior-cleric (berserker 8 – cleric 34); Mireille (given witch); another witch; a fighter-mage-thief. Both solutions were played on difficulty level middle (core rules). Good luck! Category:Areas Category:Baldur's Gate II: EE Category:Article stubs Category:Infobox Needed Category:Image Needed Category:Articles with redlinks Category:Games